Booksellers have been fixtures of downtown Yangon since the 1960s, as much a part of the sidewalk scenery as the faded colonial architecture and the food stands with low-set plastic seats.
Standing on wooden shelves and arranged face up on groundcovering tarps, the books on offer cover everything from fiction to Myanmar history to condominium law. With so much to choose from, it’s easy to get lost in the stacks on Pansodan’s middle block, Merchant Road and along 37th street.
But a combination of development, expanding shopping options and mobile phone technology has led to a decline in sales and, some say, a declining interest in books themselves. In a recent edition, Burmese-language newspaper The Voice Weekly published interviews with several vendors downtown, the majority of whom bemoaned the changing times.
“Most of the old booksellers are worried about the future. It is not guaranteed that the old bookstalls will be crowded again,” the article says, according to a translation. “Other shops are taking root in Pansodan and luxurious cars have parked beside the street’s pavement.”
U Maung Maung Lwin, the general manager of Innwa Bookstore on Pansodan, said younger people are using the internet and playing mobile phone games, which they can access easily at little cost and with little effort.
U Tin Myint, who has a shop on 37th street, agreed, blaming “social media and games.”
The bookstores still have their regular customers, however.
A longstanding patron at Tin Myint’s shop, U Kyaw Soe Moe, said he’s been coming to the store twice a week since 1992. He remembers the “beautiful” old days when the bookstalls and stores were “overcrowded.”
“In the past, there were so many shops on Pansodan, Anawathra [street], Merchant and 37th street,” he said.
While one vendor struck a chord of optimism about the area’s future, the Voice Weekly article ends on an uncertain note: “This is the current scene of Pansodan. Where will these old bookstalls be in the next 10 years?”
Photo: Aung Naing Soe
